Follow us at @WorldSportCNN and like us on Facebook
Story highlights
Manchester United beats Liverpool 3-0 in English Premier League
Goals from Rooney, Mata and Van Persie for United
David De Gea in inspired form in Man Utd goal
Champions Juventus held 1-1 by Sampdoria in Serie A
A litany of wasted chances and inspired goalkeeping from David De Gea combined with clinical finishing from the home side saw Manchester United pile the misery on Liverpool with a 3-0 win in the English Premier League Sunday.
The meeting of the bitter north-west rivals saw goals from Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Robin Van Persie clinch three points for Louis Van Gaal’s upwardly mobile team, consolidating third in the standings behind Chelsea and Manchester City.
It was a sixth straight victory after a poor start to the campaign.
But Brendan Rodgers and his visiting team would have left Old Trafford shaking their heads in disbelief at the cruelty of the scoreline.
Read: Liverpool crashes out after Basel draw
Liverpool’s England international Raheem Sterling – pushed into a striking role – was the chief culprit in failing to make the most of gilt-edged opportunities.
De Gea kept out his first effort and as the ball was cleared it fell for Antonio Valencia to make a fine run to set up Rooney for the opener on 13 minutes.
Chances continued to fall to Sterling and De Gea kept out his second effort with a brilliant reaction save from point blank range.
But it was United who went further ahead as Ashley Young’s cross was flicked on to Mata, who appeared to be in an offside position as he headed home on 40 minutes.
Sterling must have known it would not be his day when early in the second half he intercepted a back pass from Jonny Evans and with only De Gea to meet made a hash of his effort, the Spanish goalkeeper making another fine save.
Read: Balotelli’s tweet tops the chart
Mario Balotelli came on as a second half substitute for Liverpool and he was the next to fall victim to the home stopper’s masterclass.
Set up by Sterling, Balotelli’s fierce and curling shot was tipped on to the crossbar by De Gea, perhaps the best of his saves.
Van Persie, who had missed a cast-iron chance of his own, made it 3-0 on 71 minutes after a mistake by Dejan Lovren left Mata to pick out the Dutch star for an easy conversion.
There was still time for De Gea to deny Balotelli again, the Italian still searching for his first league goal for Liverpool.
Tottenham Hotspur beat Swansea 2-1 in the EPL late game Sunday, with Christian Eriksen scoring a late winner after Wilfried Bony had canceled out Harry Kane’s opener for Spurs.
In Serie A, leader Juventus saw its 25-match winning run in the league at home ended by Sampdoria.
Former Manchester United player Patrice Evra scored his first goal since joining Juve as he headed home from a Claudio Marchisio’s corner.
But visiting substitute Manolo Gabbiadini curled home from the edge of the area to level for Samp after the break in a 1-1 draw.
It was the second draw in a row for champion Juventus and Roma later closed to within a point with a 1-0 win at Genoa.
Radja Nainggolan scored the goal on 40 minutes, Roma having wasted an earlier penalty after home keeper Mattia Perin conceded the spot kick and was shown a red card.
His replacement Eugenio Lamanna proceeded to save Adem Ljajic’s effort, but his heroics proved in vain.
In France’s Ligue 1, reigning champion Paris Saint Germain lost its unbeaten record with a 1-0 away defeat at lowly Guingamp.
Jeremy Pied scored Guingamp’s goal with a flying header in the 11th minute and the home side hung on for a famous victory.
But Marseille later missed the chance to go four points clear of PSG at the top when going down to a 1-0 loss at Monaco. Bernardo Silva hit the winner just after the hour mark.
